Principal's Newsletter, Week 1, Term 2, 2015

posted Apr 24, 2015, 2:36 AM by Ms. Connors

Welcome
back to Term 2. Our students have once again achieved spectacular success at
the national level.

Congratulations to
Jade Pham of Year 11 who won the National Brain Bee finals in Perth during the
holidays. Jade will now represent Australia and compete at the international
level. Please click on the link below to read more of Jade’s fabulous success.
Jade is also a member of the inaugural Australian Earth Sciences Olympiad team.

We have also just
heard that 15 year 10 students have been selected to compete at the NSW Brain
Bee Challenge.

Congratulation to
Yang Song (12) and Kevin Xian (11) who have been selected into the Australian
Maths Olympiad team to compete at the IMO to be held in Thailand this year.

Ishraq Huda (12)
has been selected into the Australian Informatics Olympiad team and will
compete at the IOI to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in July. Congratulations
Ishraq.

Congratulations
also to Zane Zhang (12) who has been selected into the Australia Chemistry
Olympiad team and will compete in the International Chemistry Olympiad.

Joshua Lin (12)
competes in early May in the Asian Pacific Physics Olympiad and we wish him
every success.

Mrs Twomey and her
students have been successful at the Royal Easter Show winning the ‘Meat Bird
Rearing Competition’ for their project. The Blue Ribbon comes with $1000 prize
money. The chickens also came 3rd in the live judging and 5th
in the carcass section. With over 100 schools competing this was a fantastic
achievement.

On
Monday April 21st, we celebrated our ANZAC service. We were honoured
to have His
Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d) Governor of New South Wales as our Guest of Honour.
His Excellency gave a moving and symbolic speech that emphasised the importance
of service to the ANZAC legend and spirit. Our cadet unit led by CUO Eklavya
Wangoo were impressive and created a wonderful commemoration for the Centenary
of ANZAC. Another special event was the playing of a bugle by Aaron Lawrence of
year 11. The bugle
usedto sound “The Last
Post” and “Reveille” at our ANZAC Remembrance Service is a Victor “Class A”
silver plated instrument made in Paris c.1900. The bugle was presented to the 5th
Light Horse Regiment in December 1914 and was taken with the Regiment when they
were sent as Reinforcements to the Middle East on 15 April 1916. It was used at Gaza, Egypt and Gallipoli.
After the First World War, the bugle has been in the possession of the Browne
family. The bugle is shortly to be
donated to the Australian War Memorial. Anthony Browne, who was a student at
James Ruse Agricultural High School between 1965 -1970 and a member of the
School Army Cadet Unit and his mother, Mrs Patricia Browne, have kindly loaned
the bugle to the School.

The cadets were
also given the honour of parading at Hyde Park on Thursday and once again were
very impressive.

Our Robotics team
have been having a fabulous time in the USA. They have visited Boston (MIT and
Harvard), New York (Princeton) and Washington DC. They were given a tour of
Harvard by our very own ex-student Anna Zhong. They are now in St Louis and
have just begun the qualifying rounds of the FIRST Robotics World
Championships. For more information and to watch live matches visit the website
http://championship.usfirst.org/ .

We welcome back our Japanese Immersion
tour and pass on our huge appreciation to Ian Goggin, Annetta St Louis, Joyce
Ng, Janie Golding and Trent Wilson who accompanied the students on the trip.
All had a fabulous time and have come home with wonderful memories.

Thank you to Ms Jenns, Ms McKenzie and
Mr Pakes who were able to ensure the safety of our Duke of Edinburgh hike in
the holidays in the face of rising waters. Having such experienced and safety conscious
supervisors is essential for the success of these activities.

I
had a wonderful experience in Korea with 30 Principals from all over Australia.
We visited many wonderful schools and learnt of the values and culture of the
Korean People. I was so impressed by the development of Korea in the last fifty
years and its ability to build a strong and future focused economy. I hope to
begin a sister school relationship with a similar high school in Seong.

Next Community of James Ruse Meeting is Tuesday May 5th at 8pm. Our
guest speakers for this event will be Mrs Liza Mayers (Head Teacher of English)
and Mr Bravin Ragavan (Ex-student). Mrs Mayers will give a brief overview of
the English curriculum and suggest advice on how best to assist your children in
the study of English. Bravin will discuss the importance of a well-rounded
education and the need for extracurricular activities to ensure a successful
university and career experience.